YELLOWSTONE

Well, we've been home a week and I'm finally recovered enough to post! Our trip was really a lot of fun. We've never been to Yellowstone in June and it was a delightful time to go. It wasn't very crowded and not too hot -- although we had been planning on temps in the 50's and 60's and were slightly annoyed at the low 70's. But we were never rained out anywhere and the blackout during our stay at Lake came conveniently after dinner and ended before we woke up. It made playing Sorry and Go Fish all the more exciting as the light faded. The double rainbow the second night was beautiful!.
It was a little early in the year for the buffalo herds to have come south from the Lamar Valley and we didn't see many of the big elk herds, but we saw a huge daddy moose, the up-close and personal grizzly and her cub, baby coyotes, a big coyote who lived in our cabin complex and many snowshoe hares who hid under our cabins to avoid the coyote. We really didn't need the snowshoe hares because we brought the Energizer Bunny with us. He was 4 years old and didn't seem to be equipped with an off switch. Ever. According to his parents, he even talked in his sleep. But, luckily for us old folks we had separate accomodations. One thing that was really fun was seeing the geysers with little kids who were really tickled by them. I know we were there last summer with the grandkids too, but what made this different was that it was cool enough that I could actually get out on the boardwalks and I had my heavy duty scooter with me. Plus there were only two kids, so when they got they got tired on the longest oart of the boardwalks they could both ride. Robert and I never visit geysers or mudpots when we go alone, but we had a lot of fun. And being there when Beehive geyser went off was really cool. It is so tall and incredibly powerful and goes full strength for about 5 full minutes. It is very unpredictable and only goes off once or twice a day. The sound and pressure difference between Old Faithful and Beehive is kind of like your garden hose and a firehose. We stayed the first night at The Old Faithful Inn. We were on the third floor and there was no way to get the scooter up to any floor, so that was a little tricky. But the kids and I sat at the table on the mezzanine and worked hard on their Junior Ranger paperwork. By the end of three days in Yellowstone those two kids were so well prepared for their ranger interview - and so proud of their patches!
I'll write about Tetons tomorrow!